The Healing Power of Ice Cream
by Reluctant Dragon
Summary: In which we find that ice cream has curative properties. Of course, only when Mikey is around… Oneshot.


**The Healing Power of Ice Cream

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**

_In which we find that ice cream has curative properties. Of course, only when Mikey is around…

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_

_DISCLAIMER: TMNT not mine, and Michaelangelo and April will **never** have a romantic relationship while I'm around!_

_Okay, this started out as a 500-word Don/April fic. It is no longer a 500-word Don/April fic. I'm not quite sure how it happened, actually._

_And as a forethought- Mikey grins a lot. It's in his personality._

_And on to the fic!

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_

It was a tormented summer night. The sky seemed to be boiling as it lightning danced across the sky, and more then a few people were tossing and turning in their beds.

April O'Neil was one of them.

Suddenly April jerked awake. Thunder rumbled overhead, crashing and rolling, and she heard the wind howling outside of her window. She sat up, pushed her sweat-soaked hair away from her face, and took a deep breath. Her tank top was drenched with sweat, and she was gasping like she had just run a marathon. She glanced over at her alarm clock and found to her ultimate disgust that it was 2:30 in the morning. She groaned. _Great_. _Another sleepless night. _

She threw off her light covers, rolled out of bed and stretched, her back popping. It had been a hot and muggy day, and the rain brought no comfort, only more humidity.

All of a sudden a knock came at her window. She jumped, then frantically started searching for a bathrobe. _There're only four people in the whole world that would think it's sociably acceptable to visit the damn window of someone's damn bedroom at two-thirty in the damn morning… _

Successfully finding the bathrobe, she walked over to the window and opened the curtains. Michaelangelo's wide and friendly face greeted her. He motioned for her to let him in.

"Mikey, what are you doing here? It's two-thirty in the morning!"

He gracefully dropped into the room as she slid the window shut behind him. "Hey Ape! What's shakin'?" He paused, shaking his head and limbs to get rid of the water decorating his green skin. "Well, other then me, I guess." he said with a disarming smile.

"Hold on, hold on, you're getting water everywhere. I'll get you a towel." He followed her down the hall, leaving wet footprints on the hardwood floor. "Mikey, you're completely soaked…" She said disapprovingly. His mask and pads were dripping water. He grinned at her sheepishly. "You'll be lucky if you don't get pneumonia… Take those off, I'll put them in the dryer."

"Yes, mom." Michaelangelo said meekly. Then he grinned devilishly and started humming "I'm too Sexy" while stripping off the pads.

"Knock it off, you goofball." She said with a small smile. "And you never answered my question. What are you doing here?" She reached the linens closet and opened it, rummaging for a beach towel big enough for the mutant turtle.

"We just finished second patrol, and I… I didn't feel like going home yet. I figured that you would be up, 'cause it's Saturday night and you don't have work tomorrow morning." April handed him a big fluffy towel.

"I could have been out, you know." She was head and shoulders in the linen closet, looking for one of the larger bathrobes that she kept around in case her reptilian friends needed to warm up. "On a date, at a club… Someone could have been here with me…"

"But you weren't, 'cause you never go out anymore. And you haven't gone on a date since that guy from PolyTech." April turned and gave Mikey a look.

"He smelled weird." She said defensively. Mikey rolled his eyes and snorted.

"Fine, Mr. Know-it-all. You tell me why I don't go out anymore." She turned back into the closet, leaning over and reaching back into its depths to grab a bathrobe.

He draped the towel over his shoulders and leaned against the wall, the infamous 'Mikey Charm' oozing out of his pores. "Cause you're hung up on Donny." His voice was the epitome of smug.

She jerked up, hit her head rather hard on one of the shelves and started cursing. She grabbed the elusive bathrobe, backed out of the closet, and closed the door with more force then was absolutely necessary. She gave Mikey the evil eye.

"That sounded like it hurt. Was it something I said?" _He almost sounds innocent, except for that shit-eating grin he's wearing._ She thought. She glared at him a moment more, then threw the bathrobe at his chest and stomped off to the kitchen. _Stupid Mikey with his stupid comments and stupid insinuations… I am not hung up on Donatello. I'm not. _

"I'll just put these in the dryer myself then, shall I?" He called after her cheekily. She grunted in response.

A few minutes later, he entered in the kitchen cinching the bathrobe tightly around himself, mask-and-pad-less. April was crashing plates and cups together in the sink and making a terrific racket. _Just don't think about what he said. Maybe he forgot. Maybe he won't say anything else about it. Maybe one of these days he'll order a normal pizza. Oh God… This is NOT what I need right now._

Mike walked up behind her. "Can't take a little ribbing, huh April?" She whirled around, hands covered in an inch of suds. She extended her pointer finger in his direction.

"**You** are being an _annoyance_. I could throw you out right now, and I would not feel even a _drop_ of remorse, because you would deserve being stuck out in the rain!" Mike was warily keeping his eyes on her extended finger.

"Should I be worried that you're gonna poke my eye out with that thing?" He gestured toward her finger.

"Probably." She snarled.

Mike's eyes grew concerned at her ferocity. "Um… April, are you okay? I mean, if this is really a bad time, I can go..."

April stared at him for a minute, during which time he nervously backed away, then deflated and shook her head. "I'm sorry Mike, I guess I'm just a little out of it. I mean, it _is_ two …" She quickly glanced at the small clock on her wall. "Forty-five, and I'm usually asleep by now."

Mike gave her a suspicious look, then smiled enthusiastically. "Here, then I can help you remedy that! I'll make you some warm milk! That _always_ works in the movies!"

"Oh Mikey, that's sweet, but you don't really need to…"

He patted her on the arm comfortingly. As comforting as a five-foot-five giant turtle in an off-white terrycloth bathrobe could be. "No, it's my fault that you're all bent out of shape, let me do something for you!" Humming merrily, he briskly walked the short distance to her fridge and started rummaging through it. He emerged triumphant only a few moments later. "Aha! Found it! And it still has a week left before the expiration date!"

"Mikey, really, you don't…"

"You still keep your saucepans under here, right?" Mikey didn't wait for confirmation and started opening and closing cupboard doors. "Found it!" He crowed. "Now just you wait, soon you'll be sleeping like a baby!"

"Wait, Mikey… NO!" Michaelangelo poured the milk into the pan, set it on the stove, and turned the gas range on. With a small _whoomph_, the stove lit. April squeaked in fear and shrunk away from the open flame.

Mikey whipped around. "April! What's…" April was no longer looking at him, but at the live fire that was warming up the saucepan. Her eyes were wide and terrified, and her knuckles were white where she was gripping the countertop. "Aw, crap…" He muttered, and quickly turned off the gas. The fire disappeared, and April sagged in her chair, tears evident in her eyes. "April, are you-"

She cut him off before he could continue. "I'm having the nightmares again."

Michaelangelo sucked his breath in sharply and dropped into the seat next to her. "Damn, April, I'm sorry… Why didn't you say anything?"

"I TRIED!" She cried. "I just… they always get worse when there's a thunderstorm. I don't know why… "She sniffed. "I'm sorry for being so bitchy to you earlier, but the… nightmare was still running through my head… over and over again…" She spaced out, staring at one spot on the counter.

Mike looked at her, worried. "April?"

She shuddered, then blinked and looked at him. "God Mike… It's been what, two, three years since the Foot burned down my apartment? And I still can see the fire… Smell the smoke… "

She rested her head on her arms again, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. "And Raph looking like he was dead, and meeting Casey for the first time… in a damn hockey mask, looking like a… a… like an _action movie reject_…"

She sighed. "I'm… I'm just _tired_ of not being able to see fire without freaking out… Hell, I can't even cigarette smoke without hyperventilating anymore!"

Mikey said nothing, but April heard as he left his seat. She heard the fridge door open and close as she sniffed and wiped her nose on her arm. Suddenly, a large bowl filled with ice cream and chocolate syrup appeared in front of her.

Mike sat down again. "Now, before you say, 'Oh Mikey, I'm on a diet'" He mimicked April's voice by raising his voice an octave. "It has been practically proven that ice cream and chocolate sauce can eliminate and extinguish any and all nightmares, apparitions, phobias, worries, and/or cares that you may have." April looked at him disbelievingly for a moment, then laughed, wiping away her tears.

"Oh Mikey… that's sweet of you, but I don't think ice cream is going to help me much."

He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his plastron. "At least try it. If it doesn't work, I'll find the best therapist in the city to help you." He leaned forward conspiratorially. "And his name is Donatello." He stage whispered. April raised an eyebrow and glared at him.

Finally, without breaking her glare, she reached for the ice cream, not saying a word. She dug into the sundae and lifted a gob of ice cream level with her face. She made a face at it, glared at Mikey again and stuffed the cold dessert into her mouth. After she swallowed, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes in rapture.

"Mmmmm… "All the tension in her body slowly drained away. Michaelangelo looked smug.

"Don't you feel better now?"

"Mmm." April purred, taking another, smaller spoonful this time.

He crossed his arms and watched her eat. "Now I want you to listen to me, just for a minute or two, 'cause my brilliance is going to shine through."

"See, what's holding you back is that you're too scared of the memory, of all the emotions that you had while we were escaping your old place. You have **got** to realize that it's in the _past_. It can't hurt you anymore. Everyone survived, no one even got scars. Well, with Raph it's hard to tell cause he always has some sort of injury, but I don't think he got any more scars. So… just let it go."

April stared at him. "But… Everything…"

"Just. Let. It. Go." He said slowly and forcefully, annunciating each word carefully.

April continued to stare at him like he had grown another head, until comprehension slowly dawned over her face. She started laughing, slowly at first, then harder and harder until tears started flowing down her face.

Mikey looked at her with a worried expression on his face. "That wasn't exactly the reaction I had in mind."

April took a deep breath. She looked up at Michaelangelo's concerned face and smiled reassuringly. "I'm fine, really." She sat up straighter, and then suddenly threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you." She whispered into his ear. "Thank you…"

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The thunderstorm hovering over New York City quietly came to an end, and far in the distance, birds could be heard singing.

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_Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review! _


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